Article handling mechanism for wrapping machines



W. HOPPE May 13, 1941.

ARTICLE HANDLING MECHANISM FOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed May 1, 1939 3Sheets-Sheet 1 I INVENTOR /V/z L ./,4 4/ #01 1 5 v I A TORN YS 5Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR W/L L IA M flo L" A ORN S W. HOPPE ARTICLEHANDLING MECHANISM FOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed May 1 May 13, 1941.

W. HOPPE May 13, 1941.

ARTICLE HANDLING MECHANISM FOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed May 1, 1 939 5Shee'ts-Sheet 3 IIIIIIIIIIIII \\\\\\\\\\\\i lllmulllllillll INVENTORHW/u/AM //0PP I ORN Y5 Patented May 13, 1941 UNITED STATES Rd? ARTECLEHANDLING MECHANISM F63 WRAPPING MACHINES William Hoppc, Springfield,'Masa', assignor to 'National Bread Wrapping Machine 00.,SpringfieleL-Mass a corporation of Massachusetts Application May 1,1939, Serial Nol 271,684

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in mechanism for handlingarticles in wrapping machines, and has particular reference to articlehandling mechanism adapted to supply the articles to the machine and toconvey the articles up to the point where they are associated with theirwrappers.

In Wrapping machines of the types shown for example in the Smith andI-Ioppe Patent 1,953,195, April 3, 1934, and in the I-Ioppe Patent2,043,375, June 9, 1936, the article is pushed against a wrapper sheetdirectly upon a vertically movable carrier or elevator. The wrapper isdrawn circumferentially around the article by the movement of the latteronto, with, and off from the carrier. It has been customary in machinesof this type to feed the articles to the machine by a cross-feedconveyor which delivered the articles to a position in front of thecarrier from the side of the machine, the articles being carried intoposition in single file from which they were pushed laterally one at atime by a pusher associated with the carrier. For many purposes,particularly to permit the machine to be attended by only one operative,it is desirable to have the incoming articles arranged in a linedirectly under the wrapped articles delivered by the machine instead ofhaving'the two lines at right angles to each other as in the patentedmachines referred to. Up to the present' time it has not been possibleto accomplish this object, since the pusher which carries the articlesonto the carrier would interfere with the incoming articles. Certainprior machines have fed the articles onto a carrier directly from theinfeed conveyor without the intervention of a pusher, but this method isnot applicable to the patented machines since it is impossible with thisdirect feed to reach the high speed of which the machines were capablewhen operated with the cross-feed conveyor for which they were designed.

The manner in which this problem has been solved by the presentinvention can best be understood in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary median section through a wrapping machine of thetype illustrated in detail in the patents referred to, and in which thepresent invention has been incorporated; and Figs. 2 to 9 inclusive arediagrammatic views illustrating successive stages of the passage of anarticle to and through the machine.

As is fully described in the patents mentioned, the wrapping machinecomprises a frame l upon which is mounted a carrier I I having verticalreciprocation from a lower loading station shown in Fig. 5 to an upperdelivery station shown in Fi 8 in which the carrier is level with thefloor 12 of a Wrapping channel. In the patented structures the lowerposition of the carrier was opposite the end of the infeed conveyor,from which the articles were carried successively onto the carrier by areciprocating pusher I3. In the present case the lowerposition of thecarrier brings its floor on a level with the floor of a second carrieror elevator Hi when the latter is at its uppermost level ofreciprocation. This carrier I4 is mounted on suitable guides l5, and isconnected by links [6 with arms ll pivoted to the frame at I 8 androcked periodically by any suitable cam or linkage mechanism so that itmoves from this uppermost position to a lower position shown in Fig. lin that timed relation with the other parts which will be described Inits lowermost position the second carrier is level with the end of atable l9 along which the articles are pushed successively by flights 26on a continuously moving endless conveyor 2|.

Bearing in mind the fact that the various elevators, pushers, and thelike may be operated in any desired way, as for example by the mechanismshown in the patents mentioned, the operation of the improved mechanismwill best be understood by considering the different positions of theelements as the article passes through the machine. In Fig. 1 thecarrier [4 has reached its lowermost level, where it is substantially inline with the table l9 along which an article a is beingpushed by one ofthe flights 20. As shown by a comparison of Figs. 1 and 2, it isgenerally preferable to have the carrier de- 'scend to a level slightlybelow that of the table, so that it may startto rise before the articleis completely seated upon it. By this means the rather excessiveslowness at the start of the movement of most cam or linkage mechanismsdoes not interfere with the rapidity of movement with which the carriermoves fromoperativealignment with the table I 9 to its uppermostposition.

Before the loaf has completely passed onto the carrier M the latter hasacquired a considerable upward speed,'and as shown in Fig. 3 has becomeelevated a sufficient amount to allow the flight to pass underneath it.For this purpose the carrie'r'plate is preferably beveled as at 22 toavoid interference. The main carrier l I is meanwhile descending asshown in Fig. i, and by the means described in either of the citedpatents the wrapper w is being positioned in, a substanhorizontalmovement, carrying the article across the face of the carrier at such arate that the article has picked up speed and may be transferred to themain carrier H at a high rate of speed when the two carriers come intoalignment.

A distinction between the transfer of the article from the table E9 tothe feeding carrier and the transfer from the latter to the main carriershould be noted. The invention is particularly applicable to breadwrapping machines in which the feeding-in conveyor ii is a prolongationof the delivery conveyor of the slicing machine, and in this case thespacing of the flights is fixed. Furthermore, the method of transfer ofthe loaf from the table 28 to the feeding carrier requires that theflight pass below the carrier immediately after it has positioned a loafthereon. These two requirements necessitate that the flights travel at asteady rate and that they be of low height in order to avoidinterference difliculties during the transfer. The steady rate requiresa slower speed than would be eflicient in the transfer to the maincarrier, for it is of prime importance to the efficiency of the wrappingmachine that the time when the latter carrier is at rest at the bottomof its stroke be reduced to the minimum. The output of the machine islimited by the fastest motion required of any wrapping element duringthe entire cycle, and it is apparent that if one of these elements, suchas the carrier H, be allowed to remain idle for a substantial periodthis delay must be made up by extra speed on the part of this or otherelements during the remainder of the cycle of the machine. The pusher i3is not subject to this limitation to a steady rate, and it is possibleto concentrate its effective motion in a much smaller part of the cyclethan where, as in the case of the transfer onto the feeding carrier, thepushing element is a steadily moving flight. For example, where in thecase of a loaf nine inches wide it takes 180 of the machine cycle tocomplete the passage of the loaf onto the feeding carrier, this sameloaf can easily be transferred by the pusher Hi to the main carrier in110 of the machine cycle. The decrease in the amount of dwell that it isnecessary to give the main carrier at the bottom of its stroke isobvious.

It was mentioned above that the requirements of the transfer by theflights 20 onto the feeding carrier M necessitated the use of flightshaving but slight height. the lowness 0f the flights is of nodisadvantage, but similar conditions are not present in the transferbetween the two carriers. As the loaf passes from the feeding carrier tothe main carrier it contacts the wrapper w, which is held taut under asubstantial resistance in order to insure the tightness of the Wraparound the loaf. In addition, the loaf clamps the wrapper between itselfand a frictionally held backing plunger in order to grip the wrappertightly enough to draw it out from its guiding and tensioning mechanism.Both of these resistances to the 01? ward motion of the loaf combine torequire a pushing action on the loaf which is sufficiently centralizedso that the loaf will not turn over or tilt. A low flight, asnecessitated by the conditions of the transfer onto the feedingcarrienis thus not suitable for the second transfer; and in a similarmanner would prevent the economical use of flights to carry the loafdirectly from the feeding conveyor onto the main carrier.

The completion of the transfer of the loaf When used in this transferfrom the feeding carrier to the main carrier is shown in Fig. 5. It willthere be seen that the pusher [3 need only move back a very smalldistance in order to clear the main carrier, and that it will cause nointerference whatever with the descent of the feeding carrier, beingwholly above the latter. The feeding carrier is thus in a condition todescend rapidly and to get into position for the reception of anotherloaf. In Fig. 6 it is shown in its descent, while the main carrierrises. When the latter carrier reaches the level of the floor of thewrapping channel the backing plunger 26 is struck by a swinging pusher2'! which carries the loaf out of the carrier onto the wrapping channelas shown in Figs. '7 and 8. At this point the loaf is taken over by oneof a series of pushers 28 on an endless conveyor more particularlydescribed in the patent to Lyon 2,088,269, July 27, 1937. The particularwrapping operations, other than the initial bringing together of thearticle and wrapper discussed above, need not be described as they inthemselves form no part of the present invention.

What I claim is:

1. Article handling mechanism for wrapping machines comprising a maincarrier vertically reciprocable between an upper level in alignment witha wrapping channel and a lower transfer level, a feeding carriervertically reciprocable between an upper level in alignment with thetransfer level of the main carrier and a lower receiving level, saidfeeding carrier at its upper level being directly adjacent said maincarrier, a transfer plunger horizontally reciprocable over the feedingcarrier when the latter is at the transfer level to transfer an articlefrom the feeding carrier directly to the main carrier and having alength of stroke substantially equal to the width of the widest articlefor which the machine is designed, conveying means having continuouslymoving spaced flights in a timed relation with the feeding carrier, thecarrier being so timed with relation to the conveying means that thecarrier is caused to descend below the level of the conveying meansprior to the initiation of the transference of an article to thecarrier, and the carrier is in motion upwardly during at least part ofthe transfer of an article thereupon;

2. In a wrapping machine, mechanism for raising an article from adelivery position at a lower level where the article has been deliveredwith all operations but wrapping performed, to an upper level inalignment with a wrapping channel, said mechanism comprising a mainelevator vertically reciprocable between an intermediate level and theupper level, a feeding elevator reciprocable between the intermediatelevel and the lower level, the supporting surfaces of said elevatorsbeing side by side and co-planar when the elevators are at theintermediate level, means for moving said elevators vertically with acommon period of dwell at the intermediate level, a transfer plunger atthe intermediate level horizontally; reciprocable over the feedingelevator during the common period of dwell of both said elevators totransfer an article from the feeding elevator to the main elevator, andmeans in alignment with the feeding elevator when the latter is at thelower level to transferarticles successively to the feeding elevator.

WILLIAM HOPPE.

